Environment Legal News Articles & Interviews

San Francisco, CA Roundup Weed Killer has been used by homeowners, schools, gardeners, and farmers since its development in the 1970s. Its usage has increased exponentially since the 1990s when genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were developed that can survive heavy applications of Roundup, enabling farmers to kill all types of weeds but not the desired crops. In 2015, an arm of the World Health Organization (France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer “IARC”), designated glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, as a probable human carcinogen. Thousands of Monsanto glyphosate lawsuits over alleged Roundup cancer followed. Now Plaintiffs have cleared a crucial hurdle. A judge has ruled that the preliminary opinions of three experts linking glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma were not “junk science,” and should be permitted for a jury’s consideration.

Los Angeles, CA: A California jury recently awarded Alfred Mata and his wife $11.4 million in an asbestos lawsuit against Liberty Utilities (Park Water) Corp. Alfred developed mesothelioma from his father, who worked with water pipes that contained asbestos and brought the fibers home on his clothes.

Trenton, NJ Environmental law has become better at protecting consumers from asbestos exposure in recent decades. But mesothelioma has a very long latency period, sometimes as long as 50 years. The plaintiff’s case in many asbestos mesothelioma lawsuits depends on finding very old samples of the product implicated in exposure. That’s tough, especially when those samples tend to be in the possession of the defendant.

Washington, DC: The dismissal of burn pit exposure class action lawsuits against a military contractor at the state level – and the forthcoming appeal – will provide little solace to veterans sickened by the fumes and chemicals originating from military burn pits. This is especially true when one considers the thrust of an amicus curiae brief filed with the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Baltimore, MD: America has a bed bug problem according to attorney Daniel Whitney from Whitney LLP in Baltimore, Maryland. The veteran attorney and his team of lawyers have successfully resolved hundreds of bedbug lawsuits achieving six figure results on behalf of people who have been ravaged and mauled by the tiny bloodsucking insects.

San Diego, CA: Epic wildfires rampaged through Northern California in the fall of 2017 destroying everything in their path leaving thousands of people to literally start over from the ground up. An estimated 6,000 homes and buildings were destroyed and at least 42 people died.

Washington, DC In August, the plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal In re: KBR, Inc., Burn Pit Litigation seeking to overturn the decision of the Fourth Circuit that barred them from suing the military contractor who operated the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since individuals cannot sue the military itself, the Fourth Circuit decision effectively leaves these veterans without legal recourse for the injuries they suffered from breathing toxic air and drinking poisonous water.

Baltimore, MD: The US District Court’s dismissal of the multidistrict litigation, In re: KBR, Inc., Burn Pit Litigation is about more than Iraq and Afghanistan burn pits. The exhaustive opinion demonstrates why it is so hard for veterans and their families to sue military contractors when they are hurt because contractors fail to exercise appropriate care in the discharge of their duties. As the nuts and bolts of modern warfare are delegated more frequently to private contractors, this issue is likely to come up again.

Baltimore, MD In a controversial ruling, a US District Court judge in Maryland has ruled US Veterans and their families cannot sue KBR contracting for exposing American soldiers to plumes of toxic smoke that emanated from burn pits used to dispose of trash near US military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq.

St. Louis, MO A group of seven farmers are the lead plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit that claims “corporate greed” and “a rush to market” by some of the world’s biggest makers and promoters of agricultural chemicals caused farm crops to wither and die costing farm operators millions of dollars in lost revenue and possibly forcing them to switch all their seed stock to herbicide resistant Monsanto seed in the coming years whether they want to or not.